This cache is wheel chair accessible and should be completed without exiting your vehicle. Everything you need to log this cache is visible from your vehicle while parked in the county right of way along the roads. Please don't exit your vehicle and trespass on posted land. The drive will take you from Hwy 124, North on Piper Canyon Rd, around to SkyRocket Rd to the South and back into Prescott. Drive safely, the cache should take 20-30 minutes to complete.
Welcome to some of the steepest hills I have ever seen farmed in my life!!! If you are lucky, you may see some farm equipment clinging for life to the hillsides as you complete the journey through the SkyRocket Hills.
The entire area is underlain by the Columbia River Basalt Group Lava Flows. These flows occured around 16.5 million years ago and it is believed that the lava flowed up through fissures in the Earth's crust, when this section of the North American Plate moved across the Yellowstone Caldera. The flows were deposited one on top of another over millions of years, until this section of the North American Plate had moved past the Caldera and erosion and sediment were left to form the topography of the area we inhabit today. Although the topography of much of SE Washington is formed by water erosion, the entire area is filled with large, wavey hills, similar to sand dunes or gentle waves on a large lake. None, in my opinion, are as steep and as grand as the SkyRockets. The basalt flows in the SkyRockets are very close to the surface and are exposed in a few places. Adding to the topography are loess. Loess are a predominantly silt-sized sediment, which is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. A major eruption of Mt. Mazama in SW Oregon around 7000 years ago would have deposited tons and tons of volcanic materials right here helping to shape some of this land. The other key contributors were floods. Big floods and lots of them! Between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago, large ice dams broke and Glacial Lake Missoula drained into this area on its way to the ocean. The wall of water would have been hundreds of feet deep, flooding this entire region and leaving behind sediments. When the waters receded, they carved large draws and gullies, shaping our topography and leaving behind what we see today.
So how does all this relate to the SkyRockets just North of Prescott? Well let me tell you. You will be required to visit 3 waypoints on your journey, each one with something new and exciting to see. You will also have to answer a couple of questions along the way. ready to get this journey started? ok, let's go!!
Waypoint 1
N 46 18.198 W 118 21.362
AT this first stop along the way, there are no requirements to fulfill. Just look to the NE and take in the height of some of these hills. Imagine if you had grown up on a farm here and had to climb into a combine to harvest the wheat growing here. But really, just look how it transitions from down here where it's relatively flat to up there.
Waypoint 2
N 46 21.748 W 118 21.145
This is private property, so just pull over and view from your car what the Walla Walla County Road Dept has created for you. If you look into the exposed basalt hillside NW of the intersection, you can see, exposed, the different layers of lava flows that once covered our region. Atop the basalt, you can see the evidence of the loess that covered the region brought in by wind.
In an email to me, tell me how many different lava flows you can see exposed. Also, tell me how thick you estimate the loess to be.
Waypoint 3
N 46 20.369 W 118 18.824
Drive carefully when climbing to this last waypoint. The gravel roads are narrow and windy. When you reach the coords, you can see that it seems you are on top of the world. This is one of the highest points in the SkyRockets, that you can visit without trespassing. Feel free to take and include all the pictures you like, but none are required to log this cache.
In your email to me, tell me what the object directly West of your location is.
While at waypoint 3, check out the other SkyRocket Cache GCR2DK.
Enjoy your view from the top of the SkyRockets and please drive safely. If I don't recieve an email with your answers within a week of your found it log, I will be forced to delete your log.